@@ Covid Thread - Week of 8/2

[penguingrrl]

The NJ Governor will be announcing tomorrow that masks will be required in all K-12 schools! I’m so relieved!

www.nj.com/coronavirus/2021/08/nj-students-in-grades-k-12-must-wear-masks-at-start-of-school-year-murphy-to-announce.html

[TamiTaylor]

Aug 5, 2021 16:52:04 GMT -5 abs said:

Looks like TEA updated their guidance today.

So….

There will be limited virtual learning if you test positive for Covid. I guess this will be on teachers to figure out?! Jesus. There is no funding for it. You can come back when not sick. Close contacts will be notified but don’t have to quarantine.

Just kill me. This school year is going to be a shitshow.

TamiTaylor this made me think of you. I’m sorry.

www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/New-TEA-rules-allow-limited-remote-instruction-16367625.php

Honestly I feel worse going into this year than last year. Last year we knew it was going to be a cluster fuck but at least there was “protocols” in place. This year it’s going to be free for all giant mess. My old teaching partner just got an admin job at a school in a different district. Kids come Monday and a large chunk of their staff and admin have tested positive. Everyone found out today they were now exposed because they were all together all week for PD. Yet there isn’t any virtual option still or mask mandates.

[Jalapeñomel]

Aug 5, 2021 17:33:25 GMT -5 lo said:

Aug 5, 2021 16:57:28 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

There’s still a month to go when a lot can change. I’m not going to worry until we get closer. Last year, the rules changed up to the day school started.

Yes, I agree. But to offer zero guidance? I just wasn’t expecting that. I know my district has been waiting to hear, so why wait so long to make this announcement.

TBF, Zucker does say school districts should follow the CDC guidelines which says masking is the safest option.

[Velar Fricative]

Aug 5, 2021 13:00:20 GMT -5 lo said:

NY people, what do you think about this?

www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2021/08/05/no-school-guidance-from-state-doh-this-fall-superintendents-told-1389555?fbclid=IwAR0mNH4Xoy-ksS7rosv9a7nSz306OrCEDwSqAXPzBLyJuMu6L3H1g_OdOqE

Cuomo’s trying to lay low. Otherwise yeah, it’s like they don’t think delta is spreading.

[lo]

I *think* my district will require masks but we have a brand new super so it’s a little unknown…. He did say a week or so ago to be prepared for masks again, so I think/hope we should be ok with that. I think some other local districts won’t require masks if it’s not a mandate, but we will see.

[chickadee77]

I am somewhat reassured that the area to which we plan to relocate (outside US) is currently having parent protests that schools are even opening. So different than what I'm seeing on social media/real life in FL. The pandemic never happened down here, y'all. Except for, you know, all those dead folks. /gallows humor. We switched to homeschool around January, so I'm not super in the loop because fuck it. But from friends of ours with similar mindsets that are sending their kids, they're freaked out about the complete lack of acknowledgement that anything is even happening, much less that we're the damn epicenter in the U.S. right now.

[mlkgls]

Aug 5, 2021 18:35:00 GMT -5 TamiTaylor said:

Aug 5, 2021 16:52:04 GMT -5 abs said:

Looks like TEA updated their guidance today.

So….

There will be limited virtual learning if you test positive for Covid. I guess this will be on teachers to figure out?! Jesus. There is no funding for it. You can come back when not sick. Close contacts will be notified but don’t have to quarantine.

Just kill me. This school year is going to be a shitshow.

TamiTaylor this made me think of you. I’m sorry.

www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/New-TEA-rules-allow-limited-remote-instruction-16367625.php

Honestly I feel worse going into this year than last year. Last year we knew it was going to be a cluster fuck but at least there was “protocols” in place. This year it’s going to be free for all giant mess. My old teaching partner just got an admin job at a school in a different district. Kids come Monday and a large chunk of their staff and admin have tested positive. Everyone found out today they were now exposed because they were all together all week for PD. Yet there isn’t any virtual option still or mask mandates.

You’ve hit the nail on the head for me. Last year’s protocols and mitigation strategies at least gave a semblance of control in an out of control situation and my district was thoughtful and conservative in their risk assessments. This year Abbott has completely tied their hands and school starts in less than a week. 

We may or may not be having meet the teacher night on Sunday. What could possibly go wrong in a mask-optional, indoor crowd with our area surging. 

[lilac05]

I agree that I feel worse going into this year than last year. We chose to do virtual last year largely to cut numbers in classrooms and make them safer for everyone. We could stay home, so we did. I felt like virtual would also be more consistent than in-person. I felt pretty comfortable with the precautions that they were taking and felt they were doing everything they could to safely serve our students and protect everyone as much as possible. We stayed virtual because our kids LOVED their teachers.

This year? Quite honestly, I’m really anxious. <50% vax rate, no masks, no distancing, no contact tracing, no quarantines unless symptomatic. It’s a nightmare. And the virtual option is garbage.

My only hope at this point is if Biden does a National mask mandate for schools. Please, Joe! Save us from ourselves!

[statgirl]

I’m also in Florida (virtual last year, “let’s all go back to normal” this year). I’m scared out of my ever-loving mind. I’ll admit—I’m not as worried about my kids having complications as I once was because of the statistics, but I don’t see actively courting COVID as the “best choice”. I get so angry because I still have flashbacks to when my youngest was two weeks and I had to hold a mask on his face because the ER didn’t know what type of meningitis he had and we had to take precautions (aka, he got a mask to wear in non-airflow protected rooms and my husband and I were required to mask up 24/7 until they knew if it was the “bad” one or not). Masks can work—100 years of germ theory show that.

(Also, I saw this on Reddit from a DeSantis parody account and I swear it is the most accurate thing about Florida’s mess: “Things parents can’t decide?

Dress code, swear words, school start times, school their kid attends in a district, if their kid is taught in a trailer, if their kid eats inside at lunch.

Things parents can decide?

Precautions on a novel respiratory virus that has filled our hospitals in the summer, and is rife with bad information.

What’s the issue here?”)

[turboteal]

😶🤯

Texas:

"The latest TEA guidance also states that schools now don't have to inform parents of positive COVID cases, but they do have to report that information to state and local health departments.

Schools also don't have to contact trace, but if they choose to do so, parents can still choose to send their kid to school if they are a "close contact" of a positive COVID case"

And of course no mask mandates allowed by any public entity per governor's executive order. Honestly horrifying. They don't want parents to even have a chance/choice to protect their kid??

www.wfaa.com/amp/article/news/local/outreach/back-to-school/back-to-school-vaccines/287-092460db-a81a-4aad-9cf5-3b26b203e3b0

[erbear]

Aug 5, 2021 22:47:46 GMT -5 turboteal said:

😶🤯

Texas:

"The latest TEA guidance also states that schools now don't have to inform parents of positive COVID cases, but they do have to report that information to state and local health departments.

Schools also don't have to contact trace, but if they choose to do so, parents can still choose to send their kid to school if they are a "close contact" of a positive COVID case"

And of course no mask mandates allowed by any public entity per governor's executive order. Honestly horrifying. They don't want parents to even have a chance/choice to protect their kid??

www.wfaa.com/amp/article/news/local/outreach/back-to-school/back-to-school-vaccines/287-092460db-a81a-4aad-9cf5-3b26b203e3b0

That’s fucked up. Seriously, what’s the end game here? Seriously ill or worse children aren’t generally a political positive, even for Republicans.

[pugz]

My district voted in favor of masking preK-12! Earlier today the county passed a K-6 mandate.


Feeling so much more optimistic now

[lilac05]

Aug 5, 2021 22:47:46 GMT -5 turboteal said:

They don't want parents to even have a chance/choice to protect their kid??

www.wfaa.com/amp/article/news/local/outreach/back-to-school/back-to-school-vaccines/287-092460db-a81a-4aad-9cf5-3b26b203e3b0

This is what I don’t get. They argue “choice”…but their choice means that I don’t have a choice to send my kids to a safe school this year. I feel like the first priority needs to be to have a safe option for students. If families don’t like that safe option for ANY reason, they have other choices they can make: private school, homeschool, virtual school.

Also, there’s lots of “What happened to ‘My body, my choice’?” that I’m seeing. I don’t have the energy to engage with that stupidity. Some things are just not worth the energy.

I’m sad and I’m angry.

[abs]

But Abbott is pro life, right? I hate him more daily.

I am also definitely way more worried this year than last. I see HISD, one of the largest districts in the country, is most likely going to issue a mask mandate despite Abbott. I wish they all would. Our district is firmly in Covid doesn't exist lala land.

[ssmjlm]

Poeticxpassion and suburbanzookeeper , I'm PTA VP this year and very thankful all the officers are vaccinated and pro-mask for the kids.  We just really want to be able to offer something that's not virtual this upcoming year.  I hope that we can maybe increase outdoor events if nothing.

We did have one parent try and derail a meeting last year about CRT, but he quickly realized that the PTA zoom meeting of 6 people, 4 of which are officers, wasn't going to help his cause. SMH

[osulori]

Our district announced yesterday that masks will be required for kindergarten through 8th grade, woohoo! We were going to have AJ wear his regardless but it makes me feel better that everyone has to wear one. I was concerned they were going to go the "recommended not required" route since the district immediately to the west of us did, but we've had more districts announce masking required for elementary and middle school so thankfully ours went that way too.

[cherry1111]

These people in Texas are also the ones who think the solution to school shootings is to arm the teachers.

Our superintendent sent an email this week where he is clearly pissed that Texas has not provided funding for a virtual option and even more so that they are forbidden from being able to require masks. Just makes me say fuck you Abbott even more.

Omg can the approval for under 12 to get the vaccine pleeeeeeaase get here.

[timorousbeastie]

Aug 5, 2021 16:16:28 GMT -5 was5 said:

My kids' district just announced that everyone inside buildings or busses will be required to wear masks. I'm relieved but not surprised. I'm grateful that we live in a district where the vast majority of parents support the use of masks.

I'm also not surprised that our governor (Whitmer) is not issuing a mask mandate after all the b.s. she went through last year. The Michigan DHHS issued recommendations to follow CDC guidelines but that's it. I honestly think that's the best she can do because some people insist on being idiots. I bet some anti maskers probably wish she would mandate them again so they'd have something to complain about.

I’m also not surprised Whitmer hasn’t mandated masks, but man I wish she would. Our superintendent has said the district will only require masks if the state or county make them. At this point, the most the county is doing is considering encouraging testing and quarantines. So it is incredibly likely that the district won’t require anything at all. They also dropped the virtual option last week because a survey in June showed that most of the respondents would consider going in person (not that they definitely would, or that they would if certain conditions were met, just that they’d consider it).

[was5]

Aug 6, 2021 8:58:49 GMT -5 timorousbeastie said:

Aug 5, 2021 16:16:28 GMT -5 was5 said:

My kids' district just announced that everyone inside buildings or busses will be required to wear masks. I'm relieved but not surprised. I'm grateful that we live in a district where the vast majority of parents support the use of masks.

I'm also not surprised that our governor (Whitmer) is not issuing a mask mandate after all the b.s. she went through last year. The Michigan DHHS issued recommendations to follow CDC guidelines but that's it. I honestly think that's the best she can do because some people insist on being idiots. I bet some anti maskers probably wish she would mandate them again so they'd have something to complain about.

I’m also not surprised Whitmer hasn’t mandated masks, but man I wish she would. Our superintendent has said the district will only require masks if the state or county make them. At this point, the most the county is doing is considering encouraging testing and quarantines. So it is incredibly likely that the district won’t require anything at all. They also dropped the virtual option last week because a survey in June showed that most of the respondents would consider going in person (not that they definitely would, or that they would if certain conditions were met, just that they’d consider it).

sparty04,timorousbeastie, I'm sorry. It really stinks that many (most?) districts aren't willing to mandate masks. The state was strong and clear on recommendations. There is still time for her to issue a mandate, but I'm sure she'll face opposition from the legislature.

[pixy0stix]

We're having a bad week at the stix house. DH lost his marbles at antivaxxers at work this morning. Monday was our daughter's birthday. She would have been 11. So that is added on to all the news about delta hitting kids harder. He's terrified of losing another child. It's hard for me to moderate my emotions when it comes to everything because I am to.

Perhaps I need to call my therapist for a session.

[cap]

Aug 6, 2021 10:03:36 GMT -5 was5 said:

Aug 6, 2021 8:58:49 GMT -5 timorousbeastie said:

I’m also not surprised Whitmer hasn’t mandated masks, but man I wish she would. Our superintendent has said the district will only require masks if the state or county make them. At this point, the most the county is doing is considering encouraging testing and quarantines. So it is incredibly likely that the district won’t require anything at all. They also dropped the virtual option last week because a survey in June showed that most of the respondents would consider going in person (not that they definitely would, or that they would if certain conditions were met, just that they’d consider it).

sparty04 ,timorousbeastie , I'm sorry. It really stinks that many (most?) districts aren't willing to mandate masks. The state was strong and clear on recommendations. There is still time for her to issue a mandate, but I'm sure she'll face opposition from the legislature.

My district (super liberal in the Lansing area) mandated masks in buildings and on busses. I was so glad! Given what the legislature has done, I'm not sure that Whitmer has the power to mandate masks in schools. 

[erbear]

pixy0stix, I’m so sorry. That must be unimaginable. Love to you all this week.

[abs]

Huge hugs pixy. This is all so hard.

[was5]

Hugs pixy0stix,

[was5]

lynn07, thank you for recommending the Walgreens Rapid ID test last week. I took my second son there for a test since he also started experiencing a bad cough and runny nose and I had not gotten the PCR results back from CVS for DS1. Not only did I get the results right away (about an hour), but the process for getting the results was so much smoother than with CVS. I had to call on day 4 to get DS1s CVS results and I was told they had actually been ready for 2 days but the system wasn't locating his b-day when I tried to check online.

I will definitely be using Walgreens for future testing needs.

[mlkgls]

(((pixy0stix))) I’m so sorry,

[breezy8407]

pixy0stix many internet stranger hugs 

[atexan]

pixy0stix I'm so sorry. Hugs to your whole family. Antivaxxers deserve to have marbles lost and then thrown at them.

[Michelle]

Aug 6, 2021 11:07:53 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

We're having a bad week at the stix house. 

I think the visit would be a good idea. And your husband's emotions are totally valid.

11. <3

Your sharing of ZB here was a gift to all of us. I will never forget her dancing in her tutu on the street. I can't begin to fathom what it must feel like right now. But I hope it brings a measure of comfort that she will always be remembered and touched hundreds if not thousands of people with her spunk and sweet spirit.

[Michelle]

Aug 6, 2021 6:37:47 GMT -5 abs said:

But Abbott is pro life, right? I hate him more daily.

I am also definitely way more worried this year than last. I see HISD, one of the largest districts in the country, is most likely going to issue a mask mandate despite Abbott. I wish they all would. Our district is firmly in Covid doesn't exist lala land.

They are moving forward - saw it on the news this morning.

And also this:


communityimpact.com/houston/the-woodlands/government/2021/08/05/gov-abbott-announces-second-special-session-agenda/?type=article&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=newsletter_article&fbclid=iwar1nrgyf_gr4a7yjstojmhfe-hzd7cg8wb4_iqpmrkmsmqgkhi1o5c38b5m


Gov. Greg Abbott issued a proclamation that he will convene a second special legislative session Aug. 7 to focus on 17 agenda items.

#4 - education: legislation providing strategies for public school education in prekindergarten through 12th grade during the COVID-19 pandemic, which ensures students receive a high-quality education and progress in their learning; in-person learning is available for any student whose parent wants it; the wearing of face coverings is not mandatory; and COVID-19 vaccinations are always voluntary;


#10 - abortion-inducing drugs: legislation similar to Senate Bill 394 from the 87th Legislature, regular session, which prohibits people from providing abortion-inducing drugs by mail or delivery service, strengthens the laws applicable to the reporting of abortions and abortion complications, and ensures that no abortion-inducing drugs are provided unless there is voluntary and informed consent;


He is literally doubling down on forcing pregnancies to continue to birth and also doubling down against protecting the very children in the same agenda.